Sahar Hashemi OBE

Anyone Can Do It

A former solicitor, Sahar Hashemi founded Coffee Republic, the UK’s first US style coffee bar chain with her brother and built it into one of the UK’s most recognised high street brands with 110 bars and a turnover of £30m. She exited Coffee Republic in 2001 and in 2005 she founded Skinny Candy, a brand of sugar free sweets which was sold to confectionery conglomerate Glisten PLC in 2007.

She is author of 2 books- the bestselling, Anyone Can Do It, Building Coffee Republic from our kitchen table, and Switched On.

In June 2012 she was awarded an OBE for services to the UK economy and to charity. She is co- chair of the Government Scale Up Taskforce and is actively involved in Change Please Coffee, a social enterprise that trains and hires homeless people to run coffee carts.

She is on the advisory board of BFC Fashion Trust and is finishing her third book, “Start Up Forever, 10 ways to behave like a start up when you’re not a start up” based on her experiences of working with large organisations.

Sahar Hashemi is an internationally recognised thought leader and speaker on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Sahar’s presentations are unique, blending her story of building two famous brands with the key habits for innovation and creativity. Through storytelling, Sahar is able to connect with audiences on an emotional level and bring to life her conviction that entrepreneurial behaviour is needed in every business.